Google’s latest innovation presents a freely available “hands-free gaming mouse” that allows users to move their heads and make facial motions to navigate their computer’s pointer. This has been named, ‘Project Gameface’. The software essentially allows users to be able to use facial recognition, through head movements and facial expressions, towards a webcam to control the cursor on their screen.
This project originally transpired in an effort to aid Twitch streamer, Lance Carr (also known by his gamertag, GimpyG), after a housefire where he lost all of his gaming devices. One of these losses, was an “expensive head-tracking mouse”, which enabled him to game in ease, despite his progressive muscle dystrophy disease.
Project Gameface has been co-designed by Google and Carr, exemplifying Google’s efforts with the disability community through a lived experience perspective. For more information on this up-and-coming project, please read the article published by Miguel de Andrés-Clavera and Laurence Moroney from Google.